Brazil - SF - Vegas - Thailand

After getting back from Brazil and taking a quick trip down to Vegas for a product launch, I went to Asia for a work meeting in Bangkok, Thailand.

If you haven't been to Bangkok, its a place you really should visit sometime. As far as Asian cities go, its very large and densely populated with some upside and downside. On the upside, there are some truly amazing temples with killer architecture, gigantic Buddhas, and lots of gold and shiny things. Aside from the temples, the next biggest attraction is the shopping. You can find really cool home furnishings, gadgets, mini Buddha statues, textiles, etc. Special mention must be made of the availability of cheap and excellent massage. The one free afternoon I had I got a foot massage (reflexology), followed by a facial, followed by a full on traditional Thai massage (I think the end price was something like $25 for 3 hrs of spa treatment). However, my favorite thing about Thailand has got to be the food... amazing quality, price, freshness...YUM.

Most of the food that is... I came across this cart selling assorted fried and salted treats. Upon closer inspection you'll find that each of these fried and salted critters were once among the living. I have to admit I wasn't up for trying any of these, but I did give the nice lady 20 Baht to take this photo.


The downside of BKK is that it has sort of a seedy underbelly. One thing you'll notice right away is that there is a disproportionately large number of caucasion men who are all in their 40s - 50s all hanging around. During the afternoon, its just them... siting around drinking beers. You might conclude that they are all waiting for their wives who are out shopping or getting a manicure or something. Then you might notice that there is a strange consistency to these men... most are slightly to very overweight, and lots seem to be these sort of 'working class' type guys. The look is unmistakeable... dress socks with white tennis shoes, vacation shirts, cheap bling-bling, etc. Late afternoon it becomes obvious what they are waiting for... the bars all start to fill in with local thai girls. I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinion of the sex trade in Thailand, some will argue that its their right to make a living how they choose, others will argue that the presence of so many willing consumers only makes a bad situation worse.

Anyway, besides the prostition, there is traffic, pollution, and its sort of just a crazy, anything-goes sort of place. Like I said, for a few days, it can be alot fo fun... temples, water market, shopping, eating... then use BKK as a jumping off point and get yourself over to the southern coastline.

NE Brazil... Part 2 - Jericoacoara

Leaving Fernando, I think we all were excited about what the second leg of our trip had in store for us. None of us had been to Jeri and from what little we knew, it was going to be a real adventure. After flying from Fernando to Recife to Forteleza, we took a 5 hour ride in a 4x4 thru remote villages and at least an hour of driving on the beach (no road!). For me personally, this drive was very memorable and our driver (Daniel) was great.
We stopped at a roadside stall for Christmas eve dinner and had a fun time eating bbq meats, rice / beans, drinking beers, and chatting w/ whoever walked by. After we got past the last village and started driving on the beach, Daniel stopped so we could all get out and really get a good look at the night stars. I think its great when you can take time to allow yourself to get completely absorbed in the stars. There were a few times on this trip when we allowed ourselves the luxury to just gaze up and drift off into conversation. Something else thats extra cool for us northerners is that the stars seem completely different due to the southern perspective... its like you are seeing a whole new set of stars!

Pulling into Jeri we were all immediately struck by the charm of the place. The streets are all sand, very few cars, great little cafes & restaurants everywhere, and lots of people all enjoying themselves! Our posada was on the outskirts of the village about 15 mins walking or 7 minutes by horse cart, and it was really, really nice. In fact, I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how nice our accomodations were... on top of this, the owners, Marcio and Patricia were extremely gracious, engaging, and loads of fun to hang out with! Can't talk about Marcio and Patricia without mentioning their angel daughter Mika, having her around the posada was really a huge bonus.

Most days we would roll out of bed around 9am or so, take breakfast, hang around the posada (literally hang in our rede), then grab a lift via horse cart down to the beach. At the beach we'd usually setup basecamp at the windsurfing center during the main part of the afternoon, then each evening we'd wander down the beach for a snack, watch capoeira, maybe do a little shopping, or catch sunset from up on the dune. Ultimately though, each evening we found ourselves at the sky bar having caiparoskas and laughs w/ an assortment of characters.

AP made some nice new friends that she met at the windsurfing center, one of which was pals with one of her childhood best friends from Jacarei (Sao Paulo)!! In addition to the new friends, we had some existing friends that also made the trip... our good friend Elrid who lives in Florinopolis, John Shannon who lives in London, and Marcia and Chris who we knew from San Francisco. Rob also did a great job making new friends :o) .

One experience that really stands out when we took 4 motorcycles and a dune buggy out for a day trip. I'll tell you, riding a motorcycle in the soft sand is alot more challenging than you'd think... fortunately, we escaped without any serious wipeouts (though I thought I was going down at least once) and it left me trying to think of a way to get a dirt bike back in SF. The scenery was incredible and at one point we came to a river, where we loaded up the motorcycles and the dune buggy all onto a raft and portaged... with pole power!


Our last night in Jeri was NYE. True to Brazilian tradition, we dressed in all white and had a fun night eating and partying. Just before midnight we climbed to the top of the dune to watch the fireworks and make our toasts, then after we walked down to do the wave hops for good luck in 2006. Noteworthy is the fact that Rob pulled an all-nighter on NYE, in fact, I think he pulled a few all nighters that week... buy him a beer and I'm sure he will have some stories.

Here are my favorite photos out of AP's collection (there are lots)... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72057594051893336/

NE Brazil... Part 1 - Fernando de Noronha

Week 1 for this year's Brazil holiday was Fernando de Noronha. Its a small island about 350 miles off the coast, slightly NE of Recife, which is in the extreme NE of Brazil. AP had been to Fernando several times for its world-class scuba and I had been hearing about these perfect hollow waves, so it seemed like a great destination to satisfy both our cravings. After talking up how great the surfing was going to be, our good friend Rob Born decided to join us.

I'm not exactly sure how the Brazil parks system work, but the way they managed Fernando was very effective. It doesn't feel like one of our national parks, but its obvious that they have put strict limitations on all residential and commercial development and thereby indirectly limited the number of people (no camping allowed). If you aren't registered at one of the guest houses, you are not permitted on the island (registration is right when you get off the plane). The net effect is really great, you feel like you are on an exclusive and crowd-free retreat!

The beaches were amazing... very much pristine and beautiful. Crystal clear water, abundant sea life (turtles, spinner dolfins, fish, etc.), and top rate underwater exploring. With AP as our guide, we signed up with a dive operator that took us on 4 exciting and somewhat challenging dives. I think the diving was really one of the highlights for both AP and I... especially so for AP. She has alot of passion for scuba and I think adding to her excitement was getting to see all her old pals from when she would visit with her friends a few years back. Towards the end of our trip, we were hanging out at one of the local night spots and started to realize that we knew half of the people there (its a small place) and on top of that, the guy fronting the band was the same guy who took us diving earlier in the day!


Few comments on the surf. Before leaving SF we did our homework... it was going to be epic, a guaranteed score... hollow waves, light crowds, warm water, and we were hitting it at the right time of year. AP was going to take footage w/ our new video camera, we called ahead and had custom boards shaped that were waiting for us at the airport (4 in total). Personally, I was psyching myself up to push my limits a bit... ride deep and really commit. As it turns out, the best way I can summarize is that it was the best surf trip I've ever been on where I didn't surf much at all. Basically the waves just didn't happen (knee to waist high). To be fair, we did get 1 day of ok surf... which mostly consisted of these local kids getting slotted all over the place, they were really, really, really good surfers. Were we a little bummed, sure, but there were so many other things happening, it really didn't matter.

So thats pretty much it... I don't know much about the history of the island, we didn't really take any tours... just lots of exploring in our dune buggy, hanging out on beaches, snorkeling, diving, eating, and a little partying.

More pics... 100% credit to AP!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72057594050590953/